Thy Sweet Love Remember'd
by PepperjackCandy
Summary: Starts near the end of "Ch-ch-changes." Die-hard Dreamer here, so be warned.
1. Teaser

Title: Thy Sweet Love Remember'd -- Teaser  
Author: PepperjackCandy  
Series: Part 1  
Archive : my writing at fanfiction.net  
Rating: PG  
Category: Romance  
Spoilers for: Everything. The entire series. I'm not kidding here.  
  
Disclaimer: Roswell belongs to 20th Century Fox, Jason Katims Productions, and Regency Television, all of which are most emphatically not me.  
  
Feedback: Always welcome, either by e-mail or using the review system at fanfiction.net.   
  
A/N: This story takes off from near the end of "Ch-ch-changes," but you don't *have* to have seen that episode to get it, I don't think. I actually got this idea from the promo, so just seeing that should be sufficient.   
  
I suck at titles, so I let others write them for me. This one is by William Shakespeare and will hopefully make sense eventually  
  
This is just a teaser. The first full chapter will come in a few days.  
  
========  
  
"Max! Please, I can't!" Liz writhed in agony. "Stop!"  
  
Max thought he had firmed his resolve to heal Liz, but the look of pain on her face was too much for him to bear, and he relented, lowering her to the ground.  
  
The green sparks beneath Liz's skin grew more numerous, until finally, her entire body glowed green, and then, abruptly, she winked out of existence.  
  
Max stared at the spot where the girl he loved had once lay, as he began to cry.  
  
~~~  
  
The pain in Liz's abdomen shifted, became somehow colder. She was cold all over. And a bright light dazzled her vision. _Am I dead?_ She wondered vaguely, a curiously familiar tranquility stealing over her.  
  
Within seconds her eyes had adjusted to the light, and she half expected to see angels. Instead, she saw Max. But something had changed. They were indoors; she could see the fluorescent lights above Max's head.  
  
In the distance, she could hear a struggle going on. The sound was familiar to her.   
  
Then her brain found the memory that the sound connected with. _I've just been shot. I'm in the Crashdown. The day Max healed me. This is my chance. My chance to make it all right._ "Max," she barely managed to choke out. "Just let me die. Please."  
  
Max leaned away from Liz, and then the darkness took her . . .  
  
TBC 


	2. Chapter 1 (Pilot)

Title: Thy Sweet Love Remember'd - Chapter 1 (Pilot)  
Author: PepperjackCandy  
Series: Yep  
Archive : my writing at fanfiction.net  
Rating: PG  
Category: Romance  
Spoilers for: Everything. The entire series. I'm not kidding here.  
  
Disclaimer: Roswell belongs to 20th Century Fox, Jason Katims Productions, and Regency Television, all of which are most emphatically not me.  
  
Feedback: Always welcome, either by e-mail or using the review system at fanfiction.net.   
  
A/N: I'm playing fast and loose with the dates here. At the beginning of the Pilot, Liz says that it's September 23, and that she was shot "five days ago," which would presumably be either September 18 or September 19 (depending on whether the 23rd was day 0 or day 1 counting backwards), but at the end, she says that it's September 24 and that it was five days ago. I won't even get into my thoughts on the reference to September 27 in The Morning After. I've condensed the Pilot down to Wednesday, September 22 (the shooting), Thursday, September 23, and Friday, September 24 (the festival).  
  
========  
  
Liz opened her eyes to find Max looking down at her - still? again? "Max?" She asked, noticing that she couldn't hear her voice. _Oh, God. Not again_ She prayed silently, flashing back to her recent bouts of hearing loss.  
  
"Liz?" Max asked softly.  
  
Liz breathed a sigh of relief. She could hear that perfectly. She licked her lips and tried again. "Max?" Her voice croaked this time, but at least it was audible.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Where am I? What happened?"  
  
"You were shot. You're in the hospital."  
  
Well, that explained the padded surface of the bed she was lying on, the beep, beep, beeping of the heart monitor, the steady hum of the I.V. pump. "How . . . how long have I been here?"  
  
"Two days."  
  
Liz did the math in her head. "It's the 24th?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"What about . . ." Liz could feel the I.V. catheter in her left wrist, so she reached her right hand over her abdomen.  
  
"What?"  
  
Liz flinched in pain as her hand pressed down on a surgical dressing. She breathed a sigh of relief that, if she had a handprint on her abdomen, no one could see it.  
  
"Don't do that." Max carefully lifted her hand from her stomach. "They had to do a lot of surgery on you."  
  
That was a change. "Surgery?"  
  
"For the bullet wound."  
  
Liz wanted to ask Max if he had left her to die as she asked, but didn't know how, so she took a different chance - that the past two and a half years, whether a memory or just a dream, were accurate. "Yesterday, in biology, the class looked at cheek scrapings under a microscope."  
  
Max blanched a little. "How did you know that?"  
  
Liz ignored the question. "But you didn't do it. You went to the restroom instead."  
  
Max stood and began backing towards the door. "There's no way . . ."  
  
"Max, don't go." Liz said, reflexively trying to sit up, but her abdominal muscles weren't having any of it. "Ow!"   
  
Max hurried back to Liz's side, holding her shoulders gently as he lowered her back to the bed. "Don't do that. You'll hurt yourself." He said with an apologetic half-smile.  
  
"I think I noticed."  
  
"I'm sorry about . . . almost bailing on you there."  
  
"That's all right. What would you say if I told you that I'm psychic?"  
  
"You're psychic?"  
  
"What would you say if I told you that? Would you believe me?"  
  
Max thought for a moment. "I'd have to say I've seen stranger things."  
  
"Well, then I had a sort of . . . precognitive dream. At least that's what I think it was."  
  
"And you saw biology class in your dream?"  
  
"Um. Yeah."  
  
"Anything else?"   
Liz thought back over the things that had happened on September 23 and 24 1999 the first time she lived them, sorting out the things that were immutable from those followed from her finding out Max's secret. "Not really. The crash festival's tonight, isn't it?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Liz remembered Max telling her how painful the crash festival had been, remembering the town laughing and celebrating while burning aliens in effigy. "Well, I don't want to keep you from going, but . . ."  
  
They were interrupted then by Nancy and Jeff Parker, Liz's parents.   
  
"Thanks for covering for us while we got something to eat, Max." Nancy began. She stopped and her eyes flew wide open. "Oh, my God. You're awake!" She hurried to the bed and reached over the railing to place a hand on Liz's cheek. "How're you feeling?"  
  
"I've felt better." She looked from her mother to Max and back. "I could use some pain medicine, I guess."  
  
"Didn't you show her?" Nancy asked Max.  
  
"It . . . never came up." Max said as Liz spoke over him.  
  
"I just woke up."  
  
Nancy reached around to the I.V. stand and held out a button at the end of a cable. "This is pain medication of some sort. Morphine, I guess? Anyway, when you start feeling pain, just push the button. I don't know how often you can do that, but the nurse said to try it every half hour or so. If you keep requesting it, they won't cut you off as quickly as they would otherwise."   
  
Jeff walked up to Liz's bed, then. "I'll bet that hurts like crazy." He bent over and kissed Liz on the cheek. "I remember when I had my hernia operation . . ."  
  
"Dad!" Liz exclaimed, embarrassed, looking over at Max.  
  
"Oh, sorry, Max. I forgot you were over there."  
  
"That's all right, Mr. Parker. I'd better be going anyway." Obviously feeling out of place, Max stood to leave.   
  
"Actually," Liz tried to get her voice to project, with moderate success. "I was going to ask Max if he could bring over his biology book and we could do the homework together later."  
  
"Liz. You don't need to worry about homework tonight." Nancy admonished her daughter gently.  
  
"Of course I do, Mom. I've got to get straight As, if I want to get into Harvard."  
  
Her mother sighed heavily.  
  
"How about if I just bring the book over and we can do the reading?" Max suggested gently.  
  
Nancy and Jeff looked at one another, then at Liz, who looked at her parents pleadingly.   
  
"All right." Jeff said reluctantly, then touching Liz's hair gently. "You'd better get some rest, though. Even if you *did* just wake up."  
  
Liz nodded and pushed the morphine button, closing her eyes. _It really is Max. Like he used to be before everything went wrong. Now if only I'm strong enough to save him from everything that's coming. . . ._   
  
Liz was running late to her wedding. She'd just called Maria, and her friend had promised to round up Michael, Isabel, Alex and Kyle and join them in Las Vegas. She hurried back into the chapel just as the white jumpsuit-clad minister pronounced the couple before them married.  
  
At least, she thought it was the couple before them. When she looked for Max, though, he was standing at the altar. With Tess.  
  
"Ah!" Liz cried softly as she startled awake.  
  
"What's wrong? Liz? Are you all right?" Max asked.  
  
Liz shrank away from him for a moment, fear in her eyes. But just as she realized where she was, and what had happened, she saw Max withdrawing from her, closing himself off. Instinctively, she reached out to him. "I'm sorry, Max. I just had a bad dream."  
  
"Another prediction?"  
  
"I hope not." Liz smiled, but the smile never touched her eyes. She reached over and hit the morphine button again. "What time is it?"  
  
"8:00."  
  
"I suppose I missed dinner."  
  
"I could go down to the nurse and see if they might have something for you to eat." Max suggested.  
  
Liz smiled at him. "No. I can do it." She pressed the nurse call button.  
  
A moment later, a woman's voice came from the speaker. "May I help you?"  
  
"Yeah. Is there something I could have to eat?"  
  
"Someone will be by in a few minutes."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"So, what do we need to have done for next week?"  
  
Max opened the textbook and looked at the table of contents. "We have the Chapter Three test on Tuesday, but will you be out of the hospital by then?"  
  
Liz shrugged. "Let's ask the nurse."  
  
They were interrupted by the nurse. "I sent down to food service for a tray for you, but there's a note on your chart saying that we're supposed to get you out of bed so you can walk around for a while."  
  
"Get out of bed?" Liz asked, stunned.  
  
Max said at the same time, "You're going to make her walk around?"  
  
"Believe it or not, people get out of the hospital a lot faster when they're more active. I see it every day."  
  
Liz shrugged. "If it'll get me out of here faster, I'll go for it."  
  
The nurse raised the back of the bed so that Liz was sitting up, then held out her arm. "Would you like a hand up?"  
  
"Thanks." Liz took the nurse's arm and began to sit up, but soon collapsed back on the bed in pain.  
  
"Liz!" Max cried, coming to her side instantly.  
  
"I'm all right, Max." Liz assured him. "But boy did that *hurt*!"   
  
Liz rested for a minute, then said, "All right, let's try this again."   
  
"Don't try to pull yourself up," the nurse suggested. "Just hold on and let me pull you up."  
  
Liz still grimaced in pain, but this time she successfully sat up on the edge of the bed with her legs hanging off.   
  
"You ready?"   
  
Liz nodded. "You're joining us, aren't you, Max?"  
  
Max smiled, looking embarrassed but pleased. "Sure."  
  
"So, how long am I going to be here?" Liz asked as the nurse helped her rise to shaky legs.  
  
"I don't know." She admitted. "You shouldn't be here at all, you know."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah. It's all over the hospital. You shouldn't have lived until the ambulance arrived, much less have survived surgery."  
  
The bottom dropped out of Liz's stomach and she turned widened eyes to Max, who met her gaze momentarily and then looked down at his feet. _So Max did do something to save me, but didn't heal me completely. Well, that should have some effect on the timeline. Sheriff Valenti wouldn't have any suspicions about Max yet. That should be something at least._  
  
The nurse unplugged the I.V. pump and looped the cord around the pole, then handed Liz a second gown and helped her put it around her backside. "You ready to go?"  
  
"As ready as I'll ever be."  
  
Together, the trio stepped into the corridor.  
  
They walked down to the nurses' station, then turned and walked down that corridor.   
  
"I think I've had it." Liz said just as they reached the elevators.  
  
"Do you think you can make it back?" Max asked.  
  
Liz nodded. "Yeah."  
  
"You did really well for your first time." The nurse said approvingly.  
  
When they were halfway back to Liz's room, she heard a familiar drawling voice call her name out. "Liz!"  
  
She turned around, slowly, smiling. "Hi, Kyle."   
"I'm glad you're awake. Every time I've come by you've been asleep." He looked up at Max. "Evans."  
  
Suddenly, Liz grew cold. She'd forgotten that Max and Kyle weren't friends - yet? She wondered if her plan to change the future she'd seen would mean that they never would reach the truce they had in her memories.  
  
If Kyle had to stay a bonehead jock jerk to save Alex's life, it would be worth it.  
  
"What's he doing here?" Kyle asked.  
  
"Max and I are studying for next week's bio test." Liz answered, then looked Kyle directly in the eye. "Plus, he's my friend."  
  
She looked over at a pleased, blushing, Max then, smiling at him softly.   
  
They had returned to Liz's room by then, and as the nurse helped Liz back into bed, Max said, "I'd better be going."  
  
"Why don't you come back tomorrow?" Liz asked, ignoring the jealousy emanating from her boyfriend. "We didn't get much studying done today."  
  
Max smiled, shyly, picking up his biology book. "I'd like that. Bye."  
  
"Bye." Liz grinned at him as he left.  
  
"What was Max Evans doing here?"  
  
"I told you. He's a friend." She took another hit off of her morphine button.   
"Right." His tone clearly indicated that he didn't believe her. "The way he looks at you is definitely not a 'just friends' look."  
  
Liz grinned, inordinately pleased that that part, at least, hadn't changed. "Really?"  
  
"Yeah." Kyle's gaze was sullen.  
  
"Well, we *are* just friends." Liz assured him, looking him right in the eye.  
  
"I guess." Kyle sighed.  
  
Liz knew that at one time, before her dream, or experience, or whatever the past two years were, she would have dragged Kyle to her for a kiss. But she couldn't bring herself to do it.  
  
Fortunately, she was interrupted by the arrival of the nurse. "I just got a tray up from food service for you, Miss Parker."  
  
"I guess I'd better leave you to eat." Kyle said. "It's past visiting hours anyhow."  
  
Liz thought she should at least make an attempt to convince Kyle to stay, just to keep up appearances, but found herself saying, "Yeah. I probably need to get some sleep."   
  
Kyle walked to her and kissed her gently on the lips. "See you tomorrow?"  
  
Liz gave him a gentle smile. "Yeah. Good night."  
  
"Night, Liz." 


	3. Chapter 2 (The Morning After)

Title: Thy Sweet Love Remember'd - Chapter 2 (The Morning After)  
Author: PepperjackCandy  
Series: Yep  
Archive : my writing at fanfiction.net  
Rating: PG  
Category: Romance  
Spoilers for: Everything. The entire series. I'm not kidding here.  
  
Disclaimer: Roswell belongs to 20th Century Fox, Jason Katims Productions, and Regency Television, all of which are most emphatically not me.  
  
Feedback: Always welcome, either by e-mail -- on-list or privately -- or using the review system at fanfiction.net.   
  
A/N: Again with the notes re: dates. Liz's journal says September 27 at the beginning, contemplating what *will* happen in school. September 27, 1999 was a Monday, so we start on September 27, 1999 during school.  
  
========  
  
"Good afternoon, Miss Parker." Liz recognized the voice. It was Jim Valenti, only the voice was colder than she remembered. Harder.   
  
"Hi, Mist . . . Sheriff Valenti."   
  
His eyes narrowed at her stumble, but then he smiled at her, the same cold, slightly hard smile that she'd seen so often before Jim had found out that aliens truly *were* among them, and that they were benevolent. Well, the three who were residents of Roswell were, at any rate.  
  
"I know you've given a statement to my men already, Miss Parker, but I thought I should come by and talk to you. Make sure you're all right."  
  
"Thank you, Sheriff. I'm fine. Well, I will be fine, once I'm out of the hospital."  
  
"Good." He took off his sunglasses and sat down on the chair by her bedside. "You told Deputy Hanson that you don't remember anything about the shooting. Have you remembered anything else in the meanwhile?"  
  
She shook her head. "No. I'm sorry."  
  
Jim nodded. "Some people in the Crashdown said that they saw Max Evans standing over you."  
  
"Max?" Liz's heart skipped a beat.   
  
"Yes. You do know Max Evans, don't you?""  
  
Liz knew that Jim could be a valuable ally. She hoped that he could be a valuable ally, at least. That knowledge was the only thing that kept her from lying outright. "Yes. I know him. He's my lab partner for biology and he's in a couple of my other classes. He's been bringing my homework to me for those classes."  
  
"And do you remember seeing Max Evans in the Crashdown the day of the shooting?"  
  
"Yes." She said simply. "But we never spoke to each other or anything."  
  
"Was he alone?"  
  
She shook her head, indicating the negative. "His sister was with him. And that friend of theirs, with the spiky hair."  
  
Valenti nodded. "Michael Guerin."  
  
"Yeah. Him." Liz saw a flash of . . . something in Valenti's eyes for a moment. She wondered what it meant.  
  
"Did either Isabel Evans or Michael Guerin approach you that day?"  
  
She shook her head. "No, sir."  
  
Jim furrowed his brow. "All right." He stood. "You take care of yourself, all right?"  
  
She nodded. "All right." She responded just before Jim left the room.  
  
~~~  
  
After school, Max walked into Liz's hospital room, his backpack slung over one shoulder. "All right. Now you're starting to scare me."  
  
"I'm just starting to scare you now?" Liz asked jokingly.  
  
"I'm serious. How the hell did you know about Topolsky?"  
  
"I told you, Max . . ."  
  
"Precognitive dreams. Right."  
  
"What else can I tell you? What did she say?"  
  
"She asked where Michael was. Just like you said she would. I ran into her in the hallway and saw the stack of folders. Michael's was among them. What's her interest in him?"  
  
Liz remembered Jim Valenti's curiosity about Michael, which had seemed so odd to her at the time. She knew that Topolsky and Jim had been in contact. So, had Topolsky told Jim about her interest in Michael, or had Jim told her about his? She needed to get out of the hospital. All of the inactivity was driving her crazy.  
  
"I don't know." She said honestly. "Some things have already changed from what I dreamed."  
  
"Changed?" Max sat down heavily in the chair by her bed. "What do you mean, changed?"  
  
_I mean that in my dream you healed me and Sheriff Valenti became suspicious of you. Now that it's common knowledge that I'd been shot, he's after . . . Michael._ Liz thought, but she couldn't say that aloud. Not yet. "Well, in my dream, I didn't end up in the hospital, for one."  
  
Max nodded slowly. "Why not?"  
  
Liz was saved from answering by Maria's chirpy, cheerful voice as she entered the room. "Am I interrupting?"   
  
"No, of course not." Liz said with a smile. Maria had been by to visit her several times over the weekend, but every time she saw her best friend, in the old pixie haircut she used to sport, it brought her back to a warmer, friendlier time in her heart.  
  
"I guess I'd better go." Max mumbled as he stood to leave.  
  
"No! Don't go!" Liz exclaimed instinctively.  
  
Maria turned to Liz, her eyes wide in surprise.   
  
Max slowly sat back down. "All right," he said in a dubious tone.  
  
"Well, we haven't had time to talk about biology yet. Or anything." Liz said, lamely.  
  
Max just looked at her, long and steadily. She stared back, wishing she could find the words that would bridge this uncomfortable gap. Turn him into 'her' Max. If anything would.  
  
Maria looked from Liz to Max and back again. "I am interrupting. I'll go . . ."  
  
"No. Stay." Max insisted. "You can go on our afternoon walk with us."  
  
"Your afternoon walk?" Maria asked with raised brows.  
  
Max blushed.  
  
Liz came to his rescue. "Max has been coming with me every afternoon when I go for a walk. They tell me I'll get out of the hospital faster if I get up once in a while."  
  
Maria nodded and indicated the door. "So, shall we?"  
  
Max averted his gaze while Maria helped Liz into her robe. "So, how much longer will you be in here? People at school keep asking about you."  
  
Liz shrugged. "They might let me go home tomorrow. It's hard to tell. They say that I should have died from the wound, but I didn't."   
  
She glanced at Max out of the corner of her eye as she said this. Max just dropped his eyes, staring at his feet as they walked.  
  
"So, did Max tell you about the weirdo substitute covering for Singer?" Maria babbled. "She actually asked if any of us believed in aliens." She snorted and rolled her eyes.  
  
Max's attention to his shoes increased, causing him to nearly trip.  
  
"You all right, Max?" Maria asked.  
  
"Yeah. Fine." Max mumbled, not meeting Maria's eyes. He turned slightly away from the two young women.  
  
Liz knew that Max was about to flee. She could see it in his body language. She looked to Maria. "Maria, can you leave us alone, please?" Liz begged Maria with her eyes to understand.  
  
Maria nodded. "Sure."  
  
When Liz turned back, Max had left. She headed after Max. "Max!" She called as loudly as she dared.  
  
Max turned, the familiar hunted expression in his eyes.  
  
Liz approached him slowly, willing him to stay calm, maintaining eye contact the whole way.  
  
Finally, she stood right in front of him, looking deeply into his dark eyes. "We need to talk." She enunciated clearly.  
  
Max nodded wordlessly.  
  
"Let's go back to my room." She held out her hand, which he took, and together they walked back to her room.  
  
When they reached her room, Liz closed the door while Max sat in the visitor's chair. Liz flopped back onto her bed. "Something about what Maria said about Topolsky bothered you. What was it?" Silently, she urged him to tell her the truth.  
  
Max shook his head. "I guess I'm just unnerved by the dream you had. Is there . . . anything else you can tell me about it?"  
  
"I wish I could. But I really don't know which things are going to happen, and which are just figments of my imagination. But . . ."  
  
"All right. What do you know -- or think you know -- about Topolsky?"  
  
"She's not a substitute at all. She is . . . or she'll say that she is . . . a guidance counselor."  
  
"'She'll say that she is?'" Max quoted back to her.  
  
"Well, that part I'm not sure of. In my dream, it turned out that she was an FBI agent."  
  
Max nodded. "An FBI agent . . ." He repeated slowly. "Investigating what?"  
  
_She's with a branch of the FBI that is trying to root out aliens._ Liz desperately wanted to tell Max the truth, but she couldn't. Not until Max trusted her enough to tell *her* the truth.  
  
If that would ever happen. 


End file.
